EXTREMELY LOUD INCREDIBLY CLOSE 3.3***
This movie may be the best and most honest, hard-hitting look at the many aspects and challenges of a child with Asperger’s Syndrome but even more so at the depths of grief experienced by children and adults with the loss of a loved one. In a bold and perceptive use of a character who is 9 years old and has a mild to medium case of Asperger’s Syndrome, which use turns out to be remarkably appropriate because it allows the dialogue to be straight-forward and frank and elevates the logical mind above the emotional mind which, in most any other movie would have seemed artificial and contrived. The entire mystery adventure which is the heart of the movie allows the audience to experience the wonder and the depths of true emotions as well as the hidden mysteries and goodness of the human condition.

The film tells the story of Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), a nine-year old boy whose father ( Tom Hanks ) is killed on September 11th 2001, in one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. A year passes since "the worst day", and, Oskar desperately tries to keep his father’s memory from fading He has read or knows that "If the sun were to die, we'd not know it for another 8 minutes, because that's how long it takes for sunlight to reach us." Feeling that his 8 minutes with his father are about to expire, and upon finding a key in a vase on the top shelf of his father’s closet, Oskar sets off on a remarkable journey to find the safe or door or whatever the key unlocks. The journey, the quest, is to Oskar an attempt to bring his father back. But the journey in fact will bring him closer to his mother and other family, to others struggling with the horrible after-effects and grief and loss of 9/11, and, most importantly, to himself. Along the way, Oskar meets a variety of characters including the mysterious "renter' (Max Von Sydow) living in his grandmother's house. What the movie so beautifully accomplishes, above all else, is capturing the sweet innocence of a young boy with Asperger’s and revealing so many touching and dramatic moments about him and the many people he meets in his journey, while never getting over-zealous or contrived .

What Thomas Horn delivers as Oskar is by no mistake one of the best child performances in some time. Horn dives into one of the most complex character's ever created for a child & does a marvelous very convincing job .Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock did well in their roles, as did Max Von Sydow, as the surprising and at times scary renter, but the movie belonged to young Thomas Horn.

It would help for you to know about and look for some of the Asperger’s traits that Oskar portrays so very well: .
He's a catalogue of obscure facts and figures . He's highly neurotic and his list of phobias rang from tall buildings to bridges to loud noises to things made of concrete. He has a hard time approaching strangers and speaking to them directly. He mentally counts his own lies. The only person he could communicate with was his father. So imagine the huge amount of courage it took for Oskar to go out into all 5 Boroughs of NYC during his quest seeking out and talking to complete strangers .

But the film is not about Asperger's syndrome nor is about the 9/11 incident/tragedy. . The movie is really about the loss of a loved one as seen through the eyes a 9 year old with Asperger’s whose fears and anxieties are just like everyone else's. But because of the Asperger’s, Oskar openly expresses those fears, there's no filter to it if you will, he lets it all out, something that the rest of us probably would need years of therapy to be able to do.

.Excellent film for the whole family … many lessons to be learned and many emotions to be felt.

Clark